[BOOKE OF COMMON PRAYER, in English]. -- [BEER, John T. (1862?-1900), fore-edge painting artist]. The Booke of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments: And other Rite and Ceremonies of the Church of England. London: Bonham Norton and John Bill, Printers to the Kings most Excellent Majestie, 1629. [Bound with:] The Holy Bible containing the Old Testament and the New. London: Thomas and John Buck, 1630. [Bound with:] The Whole Booke of Psalmes. London: for the Company of Stationers, 1629.
3 works in one volume, folio (328 x 220mm) in sixes. Double column, Roman type, ruled in red. Title within elaborate woodcut border, 34 pp. woodcut genealogy chart, woodcut double-page map of Canaan, woodcut initials, head- and tail-pieces. FULL CONTEMPORARY CALF, covers with a central gilt lozenge with intricate tooling, gilt-stamped with the initials “M B”, fleurons at corners, framing in gilt and blind, rebacked preserving original spine gilt, endpapers renewed, gilt top and bottom edge, WITH A FORE-EDGE PAINTING BY JOHN T. BEER which he titled near the fore edge on the front pastedown “The Finding of Moses”. (Some rubbing to covers, corners discreetly repaired, tiny wormholes to lower cover, lacks ties). Provenance: King Charles I (1600-1649), engraved royal bookplate preserved and affixed to new endpapers; M.B. (contemporary initials on covers).
AN ATTRACTIVE EXAMPLE of the work of the fore-edge artist John T. Beer, a successful Merseyside clothier and book collector, who turned to fore-edge painting in his retirement, producing more than 200 fore-edge paintings and painted bindings between 1884 and 1900. Given Beer’s background as a clothier, the style of the painting echoes a tapestry. See The Fore-Edge Paintings of John T. Beer by Jeff Weber (Los Angeles, 2005). STC 16374.